On a fine Sunday morning, I’d like to first say that I support President Obama and Vice President Biden – fully and lovingly! I’ll read this fine post, next.

Yuck. Just watched my recording of CBS Sunday Morning, where Bob “Judas” Gates talked about his book “Duty” – which should be called “Betrayal and Fall.”

Because CBS had interviewed him before the last few days of outrage, they did a second interview at the end of the piece. Gates was wearing a neck brace from “a fall” – his second fall, in my opinion. The first was a fall from grace, a falling reputation, and his representation of himself as a bitter, “seething,” jealous, too-emotional-for-the-job former government worker that I’m guessing people at the Pentagon were glad to see go.

Nobody will remember anything much Gates did that could be called good, at this point; they’ll just remember how – for what everybody’s calling “the first time ever” – he tried to belittle and besmirch a sitting President, all to make himself stand out. Our President, Barack Obama, and a sitting Vice President, Joe Biden, were his biggest targets.

One of the reasons Gates said he left the job was that every time he thought about or talked about our servicemen and women at the end, he’d get choked up. Well, I get choked up thinking about them, too, but if I couldn’t man up and strategize and work on military tactics with the men and women in uniform, and give my President strong, well-thought-out advice, I would have quit long before you did, Gates. Burnout, especially in that type of job, would be understandable. Apparently, you now seek to blame others for your burnout – not just the fact that you had reached your limit of competency and resilience.

The country has also grieved for what our military was sent – by Bush – to do, how it impacted each and every one of them, but – for God’s sake – if you can’t do the job of Defense Secretary without choking up, then you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do it and you stayed too long at the parade.

Gates, I hope you cry yourself to sleep at night, now, knowing that when YOU were called to the test – and your only test was to give your best, seasoned, strong advice to our President, while measuring what was best for our country, our military, and the taxpayers, and then to keep your mouth shut about it – you fell down on the job. You’re a footnote, now, and you could have remained a player. I hope we don’t see the likes of you on TV or at a bookstore near us, any time soon.

Just mentioned in the last post while a new post was happening that the politicians and presidents have been following the military leaders advice for so long that it became custom. Eisenhower warned us about letting the military complex become too strong. JFK learned to distrust military advise after disastrous results. I am happy to learn that both PBO and our VP have been skeptical all along. I am disheartened to see that Clinton was undermining our President with the military leaders. Gates book may be gaged to bolster HRC support but she has lost mine. Wish Biden or Kerry could win.

Ms. LeTourneau had a very interesting article about this. She’s not addressing the fact that Gates wrote this book, but the fact that one reason President Obama may have decided to keep him on is that their strategies in this area were very similar – that Gates had been promoting this strategy to Pres. Bush. So he started out, anyway, in PBO’s corner. The fact that Pres. Obama rethought the strategy only redounds to his credit in my book.

“Its true that President Obama has always wanted to emulate Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” And that likely influenced his decision to keep Gates on as Secretary of Defense. But its also clear that Gates was brought into the Bush administration to basically implement the same strategy Obama had embraced on these two wars. I’m sure that continuity of that strategy played a large role in his decision. That doesn’t do much to feed the partisan battles that dominate our discourse. But its history nonetheless.”

Very we’ll stated, Jacq! As the Sec Defence during America’s longest war, presiding over record suicides and burnout, plus record numbers of brain injuries, one would think Gates could have used better judgement with his actions. No point getting “choked up” thinking about troops in their 11th year of war, and then causing confusion by being disloyal to the sitting Commander in Chief – for money… His disloyalty stings. Typical Republican.

I felt that! Typical Republican. I’m just doing a slow burn because what if he choked up – as their leader – in front of the troops, the same BRAVE troops who are away from their families fighting unnecessary battles, some of them young and choking back their own tears? There’s a time for empathy, and a time for leadership. Sickening.

Well said, JOB. The truth is that all these very incidental players will be lucky if they even end up as footnotes. The towering figure of our time is our president–a visionary and charismatic leader who is also one of the most brilliant to ever hold that office. Gates’ book will be in remainder piles soon and then used as pulp in recycling. He’s a small man with a tiny vision who was unworthy of the office he was called to fill. The president must have realized he was dealing with an inferior player and “tolerated” him until he left. The only positive thing here is that Gates wasn’t smart enough or stupid enough to deliberately sabotage the president while serving as SOD, as I think other more Machiavellian SODs in our history would have been, so the damage he did was limited. His name is not well known outside of the beltway and his petty attacks won’t affect anything, but his own sad reputation.

Dotser, I want this man to run for president in 2016. I want him to speak truths and let everyone see that it’s possible to lead and get things done in this country at the state level without selling your soul or acting like a horse’s ass.

In a sense, he’s correct. When it comes to red states, the media’s coverage of disasters and crisis is appalling. People can snark all they want, it’s their right and yes, West Virginians might have been better served pushing for regulations, but 300,000 people are suffering and the TV coverage is abysmal.

This is the time to put issues like this front and center on TV news, talk about regulations, talk about the gross negligence of Freedom Industries, talk about the human cost, shame politicians who cower from coal industries and allow them to wreck peoples lives. Yet, there’s been nary a peep from national TV.

If hundreds of thousands of people in New Jersey didn't have clean drinking water, it would get a lot more coverage. #WVA

Couldn’t figure out why Kristen Gillibrand was on that list of Dems willing to undermine Kerry’s diplomatic efforts (now seemingly successful) in Iran. Most were the usual suspects for the usual MIC/AIPAC reasons. I see Gillibrand’s father is a Republican lobbyist and she began her political career interning with Repub. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. And I was hoping she had moved beyond her blue dog early days, but no— she has revealed herself. I know she has presidential ambitions, but no thanks.

So the endorsement retaliation is a red herring?? Another theory from Steve Kornacki.

Important new developments in New Jersey’s ‘bridgegate’ scandal

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Steve Kornacki shares new information about why the “bridgegate” scandal in New Jersey is much bigger than a traffic jam. He explains how the political and economic ramifications of a massive redevelopment project in Fort Lee could have been related to the George Washington Bridge closures.

Yes, I think SK is on to something. The background that he provides for his theory makes sense and is very plausible. It never added up that the lane closures were retaliation for not getting an endorsement from the mayor. We shall see how this develops in the coming days.

Linda – there were many than one on Friday – mainly people involved with the Port Authority – I guess you are talking about people closer to Gov Christie – could have been mass deletions from some private email accounts

Max Blumenthal talks about the political shift in Israel since the collapse of the Oslo peace process in 2001. He argues that the government of Israel has moved increasingly to the right, making peace with the Palestinians an even more distant possibility than it was a decade ago.

My aunt was in her 90s, had her own home and enough to eat, and even a family nearby to help, but she insisted on living alone in her home (where she’d been since she got married in 1939) and her son was worried about her cooking without supervision. His wife got her hooked up with her town’s Meals On Wheels, so she wouldn’t have to go near the stove and possibly burn herself, etc. She felt like a queen having her meals cooked and delivered (too much food for her, actually), plus the volunteers were like company to her. She eventually had to go into assisted living (I remember her calling me saying, “Jackie, it’s like a five-star hotel here! They even pick up my laundry!” Ha!), but she never forgot the beauty of Meals On Wheels.

If every $1 spent on Meals on Wheels saves $50 in #Medicare costs, what kind of idiot would cut Meals on Wheels? On yeah. Paul Ryan.

I’ve heard of women like that at the nursing homes! My friend experienced similar daily phone calls about her mom.

Me? I want to have enough money to live in an actual hotel instead of a nursing home, and just drive the concierge crazy! And meet my friends in the hotel bar every night. And my friends say they’ll go!

Aw, thanks. I was. My mother was 8 years younger and had to keep trying to bring her older sister into the current day, since my mother was out and about and raised three daughters, etc., and my aunt was stuck in the ’70s. Ha. She was still sending me cards that read “Happy Valentine’s Day to a Dear Goddaughter” when I was in my 20s, until my mother “spoke” to her about it. I miss both of them!

I’m glad to see President Obama saying he will veto legislation that ramps up sanctions. No mincing of words.
I emailed my 2 Maryland Senators about this: According to the website linked from dailykos, Cardin is with AIPAC and favors more sanctions, Mikulski is against them. I thanked her, asked him to change his position.

Elly, I emailed Ben Cardin, too. I told him not to count on my vote since he finds it necessary to stab PBO in the back. I will work to unseat him when he comes up for re-election. I am so disgusted with him. I tweeted DCCC, The Democrats and MoveOn (although I am by no means a fan of moveon), but we need to push back against Cory Booker, Ben Cardin and others who signed on to the Menendez bill.

this quotation is from a letter asking for folks to call mikulski and ask her to sign on for more sanctions:

‘ Mikulski has been one of the most contested votes still up for grabs in the fight over the Iran sanctions bill introduced by Senators Kirk and Menendez. She has the target of an email campaign from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which sent out an action alert on Friday asking members to call her office and ask her to vote for the bill. ‘

When people say there would be no difference between a President Obama and a President Clinton, I bring up the following:

1. There would be NO ACA under President Clinton.
2. We would have gone into Libya under President Clinton.
3. We would have gone into Syria under President Clinton.
4. Osama Bin Laden would still be chilling in Pakistan.
5. We’d be on our way to war with Iran under President Clinton.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is often seen as the real hand of power among House Republicans in Congress. If it’s a choice between Cantor and Speaker John Boehner, the Tea Party caucus would rather follow Cantor. That may be true in the House, but the Tea Party itself would love nothing more than to replace Eric Cantor in 2014.
The Tea Party intends to challenge Eric Cantor in a primary with their strongest candidate yet.

Apparently, Eric Cantor isn’t an insane enough of a conservative for the Tea Party. That why they intend to run a candidate against him in a primary this year in Virginia. David Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College, seeks to unseat the long-time Virginia congressman.

“I want to be Eric Cantor’s term-limit,” Brat told the National Review. Adding weight to his candidacy, Brat has been meeting with some “big as they get” right-wing groups about supporting his campaign financially. If he manages to get such funding, Brat could be the biggest threat to Cantor’s career yet. “I think it’s safe to say it will definitely rattle some cages when it comes out,” Brat says of the potential donors. But why do the Tea Party and David Brat want to kick Cantor out of the House?

This past weekend, the Bureau of Prisons held its first ever
Universal Children’s Day, a visiting event for inmates and their
families.[….] With more than 123,000 federal inmates who have children under the age of twenty-one, BOP is committed to giving inmates opportunities to enhance their relationship with their children and their role as parents. There is no substitute for looking your children in the eye and letting them know you care about them. I was pleased by the large number of children that were able to visit with their incarcerated parents.

Nearly 8,500 children visited more than 4,000 federal inmates during this special weekend. Our institutions across the country collaborated with their local communities to make the event a tremendous success and many featured activities such as storytelling, face painting, parenting workshops, family worship services and holiday-themed arts and crafts.[….] For some inmates this was the first time they read a book to their child or drew a picture together. My hope is that this is just the beginning, for many mothers and fathers, of a sustained journey back into the lives of their children and their roles as parents.[…]

What a great idea! Thank you, Rikyrah. When parents are put in prison at the rate they are in the US, it’s the children who suffer the most. It’ heartbreaking to be separated from a mom or dad you love when you’re little and need them the most. This is such a good step in the right direction.

These are the 15 Democratic saboteurs and chickenhawks attempting to undermine President Obama and Secretary Kerry’s diplomacy efforts regarding Iran. Email and call them. Over and over. Publish these names on other blogs. They are trying to push us to a war with Iran at the behest of Israeli conservatives. They are NOT working in the best interest of America.

Sabreen, I hope this group is hauled to the WH and made to feel shame for their betrayal. Biden needs to take Chris Coons to the woodshed and anyone of us who has one of these turncoats for a senator has to get on his/her case. I’m sick of these war-mongering cowards. For the first time since he was elected I am today literally ashamed of Bob Casey.

oh my Africa, every time I see this picture I get just this wave of emotion that goes through me. How someone can do this to another human being just leaves me speechless. Mental suffering of being tortured aside, the physical scars had to have caused this man great pain all of his life.

Important new developments in New Jersey’s ‘bridgegate’ scandal
Steve Kornacki shares new information about why the “bridgegate” scandal in New Jersey is much bigger than a traffic jam. He explains how the political and economic ramifications of a massive redevelopment project in Fort Lee could have been related to the George Washington Bridge closures.